AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Overclocking. Page 2

The junior six-core AMD processor costs only $200, but demonstrates pretty “senior” overclocking potential. Will it be enough to regard Phenom II X6 1055T as an optimal enthusiast solution? Find out in our new review!

Closer Look at AMD Phenom II X6 1055T

For our today’s tests we took a regular mass production AMD Phenom II X6 1055T CPU from the store. It comes in a box that looks just like the boxes for other Phenom II processors:

The only way to determine that we are looking at a six-core processor is either by the sticker on the side of the box that bears the model name and a brief list of its technical specs, or by the marking on the CPU heat-spreader, that you can see through the clear plastic covering the cut-out window beneath the sticker:

Inside the box you find the CPU in a protective plastic container, a user manual, a promo sticker and a brand name cooler with a copper base and four heatpipes:

I have to say that AMD is formally shipping two Phenom II X6 1055T modifications at this time: one with 125 W TDP and another one with 95 W TDP. In fact, you can currently purchase only the former, less energy-efficient one. This was the one we got, as you can see from the CPU marking that states: “HDT55TFBK6DGR” (for your information: 95 W processor should be marked as HDT55TWFK6DGR).

This is what its specification looks like:

Speaking of our particular CPU, you can check out its specifications on the CPU-Z utility screenshot.

In fact, the only “individual” parameter that may vary depending on the CPU sample is its voltage. For our particular unit the nominal core voltage was set at 1.3 V. By the way, the screenshot shows 2.8 GHz frequency that corresponds to the processor speed with disabled Turbo-mode. However, Turbo Core technology may automatically increase this frequency to 3.3 GHz if only one, two or three processor cores out of six are loaded, or drop this frequency to 0.8 GHz in idle mode. The processor Vcore will also change in this case:

Unlike the top Phenom II X6 1090T model, the Phenom II X6 1055T CPU we are talking about today is not one of those processors that boast an unlocked clock frequency multiplier. Therefore, its multipliers can only be lowered, which is true for both: the standard multiplier as well as the multiplier responsible for the Turbo-mode. In other words, although Phenom II X6 1055T can work with 16.5x multiplier when 1-3 cores are utilized, it is impossible to raise its general multiplier beyond 14x. This is another difference between AMD Turbo Core and Intel Turbo Boost: the competitor’s technology allows setting higher multiplier even when the processor is under maximum load.